Smart Bytes™
Feeling nutrition info overload? I will help you sort through to find what’s important to you. Read more. . .
Answering Your Questions on Diet for Cancer Prevention & Survivorship
When you have over 470 people gathered, it’s hard to answer everyone’s questions. That’s how many people tuned in this week for the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) webinar, Diet & Physical Activity in Cancer Prevention & Survivorship: The Science and Practice. 
We shouldn’t be surprised that program time ran out before we could get to anywhere near all the questions from such a large group on an exciting and ever-evolving topic like this. We’ll be looking at how we can address these questions in a variety of formats in the future. Meanwhile, today I’ll get a start and answer a few of the many excellent questions posed….
Video Interview with Dan Buettner: Is community vital to a Blue Zones lifestyle?
What makes a lifestyle that supports a long, healthy life? In the first part of my interview with Dan Buettner, he discussed the components of a healthy lifestyle that he discovered in the Blue Zones of the world, where people live long and healthfully. Now the big questions: what does it take to live this lifestyle? Can we do it on our own? What kind of support matters? Can we create communities that make healthy choices easier than unhealthy ones? That certainly does not describe life in most U.S. communities today. Here’s what Dan Buettner says in the second half of our interview. Please check it out and then join in for discussion.
Video Interview: The Blue Zones Recipe for a Long Life
If you were writing a recipe for a healthy lifestyle, what do you think the key ingredients would be? Dan Buettner traveled the world for National Geographic, exploring the people and places where healthy longevity is most common. Dan’s best-selling book, The Blue Zones, gives you his recipe for a healthy lifestyle based on what he found. When he was presenting the keynote address at a recent professional conference I was attending, Dan graciously agreed to an interview for me to share with all my blog readers. Here’s Part One of our conversation…
Does Smoking Cessation Mean Weight Gain?
What one change has prevented more than 795,000 cancer deaths in the U.S. between 1975 and 2000?
The National Cancer Institute has declared April as Cancer Control Month, so it’s a good time to remind ourselves of the obvious: tobacco avoidance saves lives. That good news about cancer deaths prevented compared to expectations based on prior statistics is due to a decline in smoking. The researchers’ calculations that quantified the cumulative impact of changes in smoking produced a bittersweet note: if all tobacco smoking had ceased, 1.7 million American lung cancer deaths that did occur during this time would have been avoided.
One obstacle: some people don’t quit because they’re afraid of gaining weight. That’s a valid concern, since modest weight gain is not unusual when someone quits smoking. However, weight gain is not universal. Reaching and maintaining a healthy weight is a key step in reducing risk of cancer. First things first, however: the multiple health benefits of getting away from tobacco outweigh the small gain that may occur, and researchers are studying what people might do to avoid or limit weight gain related to smoking cessation.
Here’s what research has uncovered so far. Please pass this along to smokers you know. Continue reading
Chocolate and Health: Looking past the headlines
A person could have whiplash following nutrition in the news recently. In less than one week’s time, hundreds of news stories and Twitter posts have been careening back and forth between discussion of a study linking chocolate with a healthier weight and a television broadcast linking sweets with a wide array of health problems.
- Chocolate: Forbidden fruit? Weight loss wonder?
Coupled with reports from presentations at a major cancer research conference reminding us that weight control is one of the most important steps we can take to reduce our cancer risk, you may be wondering what on earth to make of all this.
Is chocolate a help or a hindrance to health? Does it really pose no barrier to a healthy weight? For me, the answers lie in the study details that you don’t get from looking only at the headlines. Continue reading
The Diabetes-Cancer Connection: What does it mean?
OK, call me a Pollyanna, but some good can come from realizing the increase in cancer risk linked to type 2 diabetes. By supplying evidence of an important pathway in cancer’s development, we have more clarity on steps that can have double impact, decreasing risk of diabetes and all its complications AND decreasing cancer risk at the same time.
Last week I was fortunate to speak on this topic as part of a webinar for the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE). My co-presenter was the distinguished Canadian researcher in this field, Michael Pollak, M.D. Don’t get me wrong – the diabetes-cancer link is worrisome, since the skyrocketing rates of type 2 diabetes in the U.S. suggest that in years to come, rates of diabetes-related cancers could soar as well. Today, though, let’s focus on the silver lining: if we act now to create a few basic changes in lifestyle and eating patterns, we might still turn this Titanic around in time. Continue reading
Nutrition Distraction Disorder: Fight it with Sloppy Success
Nutrition Distraction Disorder: If it were a real diagnosable condition, a lot of people would have it. Do you? Whether I’m at a speaking engagement or simply watching the headlines, I’ve noticed lately how many people are dipping a toe in the pool of a healthier lifestyle, and then jumping out and running to something else. They never stick with a change long enough to feel the benefits, and are frazzled from trying to keep up with the latest “sure-fire” nutrition strategy.
On a conference call recently, my valued colleague Bridget Swinney, MS, RD shared one of the take-home messages from a writers’ conference she recently attended: “Sloppy Success is better than Perfect Procrastination.” That may have been said regarding writing, but I think it’s relevant to much more. Let’s look at how some imperfect changes to your eating habits and lifestyle might be the answer to replace “Nutrition Distraction Disorder”. Continue reading
Fighting Inflammation with Your Fork: What matters?
Identifying a food as “anti-inflammatory” comes close to giving it “super food” status, since avoiding or reducing chronic low-grade inflammation offers potential to reduce risk of cancer, heart disease and more. The scientific-sounding explanations of what makes a food or diet anti-inflammatory, however, aren’t always as solid as they seem.
Anti-Inflammatory Foods?
You may have heard of certain foods that supposedly promote or fight off inflammation. Yet a Columbia University study of more than 2200 adults found that a scoring system, introduced in a book for the general public, that was designed to rate the inflammatory impact of foods turned out to be unrelated to blood values of CRP (C-reactive protein), a marker of inflammation that can be measured in the blood. Continue reading
Drainers & Fillers
How often do you get to the end of a day and feel totally spent….as if your inner “well” has run completely dry?
Drainers & Fillers out of balance make it hard to live a healthy lifestyle
Many kind and wonderful clients over the years have described feeling that way often. They came to me seeking help in addressing a weight or health problem. Yet as we talked, it didn’t take long to see that they were involved in a chicken-or-the-egg scenario: They weren’t eating well or exercising because they were burned out, lacking the time and physical or mental energy to do so. And because they pushed so hard in life without taking care of themselves, they became more and more zapped of energy.
What I learned in working with these clients is that we probably all benefit from stopping now and then to look at the balance in our lives of Drainers and Fillers.
Secrets for Eating More Vegetables – And loving it!
Can eating more vegetables fit realistically in your life and actually be fun? It’s one of the most common goals among audiences to whom I speak, clients, and friends. Despite over 20 years of messages that we need to eat mor
e, average U.S. consumption remains essentially unchanged, with only a quarter of adults consuming even the minimum target of 5 servings/day, much less the larger amounts linked with optimal health.
To get some ideas on how we can boost vegetables and fruits AND enjoy it, I’m turning to Mary Lynn Farivari, RD, author of one of my favorite sources of inspiration as I cook for family and friends: Healthy Palate, Delicious and Simple Recipes to Enhance Meals with Fruits and Vegetables. Continue reading